Published in the September 2000 Issue of Anvil Magazine
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Magazine subscribers and Anvil Online members. ANVIL: Dwight, you've been a farrier specializing in reining horses for some time. Where do you live now? DWIGHT: In North Carolina. ANVIL: How and when did you start shoeing horses? DWIGHT: When I was in high school I worked in rodeo. I had roping horses and couldn't afford to have them shod so I bought a set of tools and began shoeing my own. From there I began shoeing the neighbors' horses and it evolved from that point. I worked at a gaited horse barn as a groom, taking care of horses and breaking colts. The blacksmith there took me under his wing and I started assisting him; he brought me along, shoeing gaited horses as an apprentice. I built up my own business from there. I went to college at North Carolina State and was enrolled in a two-year program. At that time the minimum wage was $1.25 per hour. I was shoeing three or four horses in the afternoons and we were charging $8 per horse; eventually it evolved to $10 a horse. Then on Saturdays and Sundays I might do 8 or 10 horses in a day. So I was making $100 a day on weekends while others were making $1.25 an hour. One day I had a lot of horses to do; my grades weren't that good, so I took what books I had to the local bookstore and sold them back for $55. I went to the supply store and bought $55 worth of horseshoes. I thought to myself, when I get all these shoes nailed on I'll really be sitting pretty! Prior to that, if I had one or two horses to shoe, I'd go that day and buy two sets of shoes and enough nails to get me through. Then if I had six to do the next day, I'd go buy six sets of shoes. But with that $55 I had a big inventory, as shoes were quite inexpensive back then. ANVIL: What kind of shoes were available to you? DWIGHT: Diamonds, basically, and Phoenix shoes. I'd been working with a man named Douglas Cobb. He was a gaited horseshoer in our area and he taught me to...... <End of Abstract>
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